


Gangster Ghost

by wolf3223



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Erin and Holtz have been dating for months, F/F, Happy Ending, also references to a movie I haven't seen, and bad jokes, and gay nerds, but it's all okay, of course, plus a sexist ghost, semi-angst, starring ectoplasm, there's fluff, we deserve some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 10:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8529748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolf3223/pseuds/wolf3223
Summary: It's been a year since the Ghostbusters have saved New York City and the world. When they get a call about a ghost in Central Park, they find something they don't expect: a semi-sentient gangster ghost.Starring Erin and Holtz being in a relationship for months already!





	

It’s been a year since the Ghostbusters saved New York City from Rowan. The firehouse was suiting them well, and with their continued government funding, they can research to their hearts’ content without worrying about money. They’ve all been living on the third floor. It was originally there for firemen who had long shifts, and after the firehouse was converted to a living area, it was turned into four bedrooms. Which is perfect for them, though they now have a guest bedroom since Erin and Holtzmann moved into the same room a few months ago.

Erin is working on equations for Holtzmann to apply to their inventions. The two whiteboards near her desk are full of mathematical writing that she knows her high school AP Physics teacher wouldn’t be able to follow. Though that isn’t hard, Erin knows she’s much better at physics than he ever was. 

Erin taps the marker against the desk as she looks over the last line she wrote down, frowning. Sometimes when she does that, the way to continue pops up in her head. When that happens, she often struggles because her mind works much faster than she can write. 

It’s been a relatively slow week, their only busts being low level apparitions. Yet Erin managed to get slimed at four out of five busts. She’s adamant that she was right that day when they took down Rowan, that the ectoplasm is after her personally. Especially since none of the others got ecto-projected on, except for the bust with the ghost possessing some old lady’s television. Holtzmann was right next to her when the vapor slimed her, but Erin still got the worst of it. In true Holtzmann fashion, she didn’t seem to mind that she was covered in green goo and thankfully let Erin have the first shower. They could have showered together and helped each other get everything out (getting ectoplasm out of your hair takes hours if you get slimed badly enough), but decided against it because Holtz’s head was full of ideas she needed to jot down on any available paper. 

The others are starting to see the merit in her theory, and Holtzmann said a few days ago (after the worst sliming she’s gotten in a while) that she’s working on something to help Erin with that. And then she left the room walking backwards, pointing finger guns at Erin. But that was just Holtzmann being Holtzmann. 

Erin and Abby have theorized that it could be because she was haunted by the mean old lady next door as a child and had an exposure to ghosts and ectoplasm from a young age. Sadly, they can’t really test that theory on her or without a long-term, expensive test that may or may not traumatize children. 

Erin snaps back into the present when she hears a boom from upstairs. She looks worriedly at the stairs up to the second floor, which is where Holtz’s lab is. The constant clanging has stopped and she’s tense, ready to rush upstairs. 

“I’m okay!” Holtz yells over the music and Erin immediately relaxes. “It was only a small poof! No singed eyebrows!”

She lets out a breath of relief. Holtzmann’s experiments and inventions are more often than not highly flammable or explosive. Holtz goes through four or five fire extinguishers per week, which is better than she first started out. Abby, who has been working with Holtz for longer than Erin, claims that once she went through the entire Kenneth T. Higgins Institute of Science’s fire extinguishers in a week. 

Erin starts to turn to where Abby and Patty work to make a joke about Holtz’s recklessness, but they weren’t there. She frowns and looks at the clock. It’s already past noon. She isn’t bothered by the fact she lost track of time. It happens to all of them; they get so into their work and research that sometimes hours can pass without them knowing. Patty and Abby are the ones who are in charge of getting lunch today. They all rotate that responsibility and dinner, which they also usually eat together. Breakfast is the only meal they don’t, mainly because Erin and Holtz are early risers. Abby wakes up about an hour after they do, and Patty mixes it up. For her, it depends on how much research she did the night before. 

Erin looks back at her equation, scrutinizing every detail. She thinks she found the answer, but she always goes over her work multiple times to make sure it’s perfect. If she doesn’t, with the delicate nature of Holtz’s inventions… it could be disastrous. Right now, they’re collaborating and trying to figure out the best way to contain ghosts. Their current method works, but they want to make sure it’ll stay safe. Or as safe as they can get, with them being Holtz’s invention. She tries not to worry about what could go wrong if she gets her math wrong. “Tries” being the operative word. Erin focuses on the equation, nodding her head along to the sound of music coming from upstairs. Over the past year, she’s come to love Holtz’s eccentric taste in music. She fixes some small errors, but luckily there isn’t anything large enough for her to have to redo the entire equation or rewrite the solution. 

After quadruple-checking her work, Erin is as satisfied as she can be with it. She pulls a blank piece of paper from a drawer in her desk. She carefully writes down the equation and her work, double checking to make sure she wrote down everything. Erin heads over to the old printer that Holtz tinkered with. Surprisingly, it no longer jams and works much better. There’s no doubt in her mind that Holtz is an engineering genius, but her work tends to make things catch fire and explode, and Erin hates going to the mayor to request the money to buy a new one. They always make her or Patty do it. Holtz doesn’t for obvious reasons and Abby doesn’t because she’d try to fight the mayor and his staff if he said no. That, they learned from experience. 

Erin makes two copies of her work, one for her filing system and one for the filing system shared by all of the Ghostbusters. Though Kevin (who insisted on having one) usually just forgets his lunch in his folder and finds it only when it starts to smell. She puts the copies away and heads upstairs. As she goes, the clanging and music gets louder. It was muffled downstairs, but as she gets closer she recognizes the song. It’s one both her and Holtz like, “Bad Reputation” by Joan Jett. She came to New York recently with Heart and Holtz bought them all tickets (well, not for Kevin since he unexpectedly prefers classical music). 

As soon as she opens the door to Holtz’s lab (which is covered in various signs that say danger and things like that), Erin can see her at her main worktable, dancing in place as she works. She doesn’t see Erin yet; the noise is loud enough that she must not have heard the creak of the door opening. Holtz is mouthing along to the words, twirling a wrench in one hand as she looks into a (hopefully empty) containment device. She looks up and when she sees Erin, she grins widely. 

Holtz grabs a nearby remote and pauses the music. “Hey bacon donut.”

Erin, though used to Holtz’s odd nicknames for her, still blushes. “Did you just call me a bacon donut?” She asks incredulously. 

Holtzmann’s grin grows into a smirk. “Yup.” She says, popping the p. “You’re both delicious and I could just eat you up.”

Holtz winks and Erin blushes harder. “I, um, I finished the equation you wanted.”

Erin hands the paper to her. Holtzmann looks over it and then back up at her, beaming. “Babe, this is perfect! You’re brilliant! I know what I have to do.”

Holtz walks around the worktable to kiss Erin’s cheek, making her blush. She then marches over to one of her bins of spare parts and rifles through it, setting some out on a nearby table to grab once she’s finished looking through it. Erin just watches her, smiling when Holtzmann holds up a tiny piece of metal, victorious. She gathers the parts in her arms, somehow managing to not drop anything. She sets it all on the mess of metal, parts, and notes that is her worktable. 

Holtz opens a drawer and pulls out a tube of Pringles, setting it on the worktable. She grabs the containment device and moves it so it’s closer to everything else. It’s been thoroughly taken apart, with its’ wiring and circuitry exposed. Knowing this might take a while and deciding that she deserves to relax after all of her hard work on the equation, Erin sits down on a nearby couch with the perfect view of Holtz and what she's working on. Holtz put it there not long after they saved New York so she and Erin could work closer together. 

Erin stifles a yawn and relaxes against the back of the couch. She pulled an all-nighter last night with Holtz on this couch to figure out the equation. She was on a roll and didn’t want to stop to rest and lose her momentum. Holtz was working on something, but she won’t tell Erin what it is. Yet. Erin knows that she’ll tell her soon.

Since the music has stopped and Holtz’s clanging is currently at a minimum, Erin can actually hear the front door open and shut and the sound of rustling plastic bags.

“Holtzy! Erin! Food’s here!” Patty yells from downstairs. 

“Erin, I have to finish doing this thing or this might make a medium to large poof.” Holtzmann somehow manages to say while holding a screwdriver between her teeth and while simultaneously focusing on working on the inside of the containment device. 

When Holtz warns her like this, Erin always takes what she says seriously. Especially since Holtz has a tendency to underestimate the size of the explosions she creates. 

“We’ll be down in a minute!” Erin calls down. 

She hears the unmistakable timbre of Patty’s voice but can't make out what she's saying. Instead of worrying about if they’re talking about her like she used to, she focuses her attention on Holtz. She's humming along to a song Erin can't quite place and is now using the screwdriver. Holtz finishes and pats the top of the containment device like a proud mother. Erin stands, ready to push her out of the way if it explodes from the vibration Holtz’s patting caused. Instead, the containment device just lets out a hiss of steam.

“Done.” She says happily, walking over to Erin and taking her hand. 

Erin looks down at their entwined hands with a content smile. They’ve been going out for eight months already, but Holtzmann holding hands with her still pleasantly surprises her. 

She leads Erin to what Holtz, Abby, and even Patty have affectionately dubbed the “stripper pole.” It runs from the top of the third floor all the way down, which has proven to be handy when they have an urgent bust in the middle of the night when they're all asleep. Holtzmann absolutely loves it and goes down it whenever she can. She's even been working on her upper body strength, which was already impressive from years of hauling around heavy machinery and parts, so she can climb up it. 

She lifts Erin’s hand that she's holding up to her lips to gently kiss. Then, in true Holtzmann fashion, she lets go of Erin’s hand, moonwalks backwards dangerously close to the edge of the floor, turns and dramatically leaps onto the pole but clings on so she can give Erin a two-finger salute and a wink, then drops down to the first floor.

Erin shakes her head, chuckling fondly at her girlfriend’s antics. She heads to the stairwell and closes the door to the lab behind her. She heads down the stairs to see the others sitting down at the table outside their tiny kitchen while Abby hands out the food. Holtz is, as usual, sitting weirdly in her chair. Erin finds it adorable how her tamest sitting position is “crisscross” as her kindergarten teacher called it. She sits down and thanks Abby as she passes her the sandwich she wanted. It’s comforting to know that even after all of those years apart, Abby still knows what she likes. 

“So, Erin, what did you do when we were gone?” Abby asks. 

“You better not say Holtz or I will make y’all sanitize every inch of that lab.” Patty says. 

Holtzmann smirks at Patty while Erin flushes. “I finished that equation for Holtz.”

“Good!” Abby exclaims happily. “Have you figured out a way to improve our containment units?”

“Yeah we have.” Holtz says proudly, grinning at Erin. “It’s all theoretical now, but I should be finished working out the kinks within a week.”

They eat their lunch and are throwing away their garbage and getting ready to get back to work when Kevin walks up to them. They all pause what they're doing.

“Alright, ladies.” He says cheerfully in his Australian accent. “There is a ghost on the loose in Central Park.” 

“Where in Central Park?” Abby asks. “It’s a huge place.” 

Kevin just shrugs, the pleasant grin not fading. “The man said you can't miss it.”

With that, he starts heading back towards his desk near the entrance. 

“That was helpful.” Abby grumbles before following him. They can hear her voice as they walk further away. “Kevin, we’ve talked about this. We need an exact location…” With her quieter tone, they couldn’t hear her talking to him anymore. 

“If it’s as big as Kevin said, it must be on the news.” Erin says. 

“Oh, you are one smart Ghostbuster.” Patty murmurs as she heads over to her laptop in her section of the first floor. 

She boots it up and opens the internet, typing ‘ghost in Central Park’ into the search bar. Holtzmann and Erin are on either side of her, peering over her shoulder. Google pops up and she clicks “News.”

“Got it.” Patty says after a minute, smiling widely at her computer. 

“Patty, you are a Google goddess.” Holtzmann says seriously.

“I know, baby. Now, it’s just right… Oh, this is perfect! I know exactly where we have to go. I used to play there as a kid.”

Abby comes back and they quickly fill her in before going to get their proton packs and Ghostbusters uniforms. They’ve done this so many times since they started that it’s automatic. They “suit up” as Patty calls it and head to the street where their car is parked. 

Holtzmann gets into the driver’s seat while Erin gets the front seat. It’s undisputed now that they're dating that Erin always gets shotgun. They even have a special plastic covering for that seat (and the handle; Holtz is a good driver, but drives more recklessly than the cabs) for when they come back from busts and she’s covered in ectoplasm. This car Holtzmann has named Ecto-3, since Ecto-1 is currently on the ghost plane and Ecto-2 is Kevin’s motorcycle. She specifically used the mayor’s car money he gave them to buy a hearse so she could make it just like Ecto-1. Abby, Erin, and Patty didn’t complain or lecture her about her improper use of taxpayers’ money. They all have a certain fondness for the car, too. Especially since without it, they wouldn’t have been able to take down Rowan.

Holtz turns on the sirens and whoops happily, pressing on the gas and narrowly missing the parked car in front of them. Erin clutches her chest and the “oh shit” handle, hoping that their good luck will continue and they won't crash. They park outside Central Park illegally, which of course made Erin nervous.

“Its fine, babe.” Holtz reassures her when she voices her concern. “We work for the government now technically. So if they gave us a ticket they would just be giving themselves a ticket.”

Erin relents and Patty leads them through the park, happily spouting off facts about the history of the area they're in. 

“You know, in 1872 this whole family was-”

Patty’s cut off by a sudden noise to the right of where they are on a path. They all aim their proton guns but it turns out it was just a startled chipmunk. They all let out a breath and continue on their way.

“Here we are.” Patty says after a moment. “The news said it was right around here.”

“Should we make like Scooby Doo and split up?” Abby asks.

“Hell no!” Patty cries out loudly, startling them all. “Do you even watch that show? Bad stuff goes down every time they do that! We stick together.” Her tone leaves no room for argument.

They begin walking down the path Patty lead them to and stop when they hear screams. They power up and aim their weapons automatically. It doesn’t sound like help-I’m-dying screaming, more like horrified screaming. After an encounter with a particularly violent ghost a few months back, they learned how to tell the difference. They rush forward, jogging as best they can with their heavy proton packs. Holtzmann may have greatly improved beam accuracy and other important things since they defeated Rowan, but their packs are still the spine-compressing kind of heavy. 

They reach a clearing with a man on his back, propped up on one elbow and holding his other arm out like that will keep the ghost away. Abby and Patty immediately pull him away to safety while he continues screaming. Erin and Holtzmann quickly assess the situation. 

There’s a ghost man in a pinstriped suit that has a black background color and lighter gray stripes. He looks like a mobster from an old mob movie. He carries a Tommy gun that’s pointed at them and the barrel is dripping ectoplasm. He has a cigar propped between his lips and a scowl. What’s even more terrifying than the fact they're facing a mob ghost with a gun is the fact that half his face looks like it’s been melted away, or more likely blown away from a gun. It’s a disgusting sight, even for the Ghostbusters. Like most ghosts, he’s tinted green, see through, and floating a few inches off of the ground. 

He’s looking right at them and seems like he’s studying them when Abby and Patty return. 

“That is… disconcerting.” Abby murmurs when she notices what the ghost looks like. 

“Man. Why can’t we ever find a cute, friendly ghost?” Patty sighs.

“We did.” Holtzmann merrily points out. “There was the puppy ghost. But then it grew when it got angry at our proton beams into a giant angry dog that bit you. Remember how you were convinced you were going to turn into a werewolf for a straight month after that? Good times.”

“That doesn’t count.” Patty protests.

They turn their attention back to the ghost when its mouth opens. They brace themselves for green goo spewing everywhere but it never comes. He steps forward and to their surprise, he gets more opaque until they can only faintly see the scenery behind him. This is something that hasn’t happened before, so they prepare mentally for a tough fight. This is the highest classification of ghost that they’ve seen since Rowan. 

“What are you ladies doing in a place like this?” The ghost’s grin is unnervingly and predator-like.

“We found a ghost besides Rowan capable of speech!” Abby says excitedly. “Is it sentient?”

The ghost frowns at them and points his Tommy gun at them. “I don’t appreciate your tone, girl.”

“Great. And it’s a sexist ghost. That’s three strikes, you’re out.” Holtz declares. 

“What are the first two strikes?” Erin asks. 

“That suit with that hat. The bullet hole is a nice unique touch, but the pinstriped suit just kills the vibe. The second strike is his face.” Holtz explains. 

“What could you three ladies do to me?” He sneers, gesturing with his gun.

They don’t know yet if ectoplasm bullets hurt but they don’t want to find out. They duck when he starts firing. The ecto-bullets hit the trees behind them with wet splat as they leap onto the ground, landing on their chests. The Ghostbusters start firing back as soon as they hit the ground. He dodges their initial shots but gets caught in their proton stream the second time they fire. The white, rope-like beam wraps around him, immobilizing him. He struggles, clearly angry but it doesn’t budge. 

Once they're sure he can't move, they stand slowly. In a practiced move, Holtz holds onto her still firing proton gun with one hand and detaches a containment device from the bottom of her pack. They all carry one and keep extra empty ones in Ecto-3 just in case, but Holtzmann prefers to be the one that sticks them in. The others are perfectly fine with that, because most of the time it’s difficult enough to keep their guns aimed at the ghost without having to worry about containment units. A pedal comes out of the device and Holtzmann holds her foot over it. 

“Alright, ladies. Ghostie here is going in a box in three, two, one!” 

Holtz steps on the pedal and the containment unit opens, a swirling vertex forming. By now, they know for sure that it’s safe for humans to be by it while this is happening. Holtz had theorized that it might suck out someone’s soul before they knew that, but fortunately they debunked that. 

The ghost lets out an earsplitting rage-filled scream as it gets sucked in. The unit closes, wisps of smoke coming out from the sides. Holtzmann picks it up and gives Erin a lopsided grin. 

“Did anyone get hit by the bullets?” Erin asks worriedly. While the scientific part of her is incredibly curious about what would happen if someone did, they are her best friends in the world. 

“Yeah. Right in the shoulder.” Patty says, motioning to the dark stain on her uniform. She comforts them quickly when she sees the panic on their faces. “It hurt and it’s going to leave a nasty bruise, but I should be fine. There isn’t any blood or anything. I’m okay.”

Holtzmann hugs her quickly, surprising them all. She isn’t the type for physical shows of affection except with Erin. Though she does love the piggy back rides Patty gives her. Erin takes her hand as they make their way out of the park, squeezing gently. She's relieved when Holtz squeezes back, who plays with her fingers absentmindedly. 

“There was something I wanted to say to that ghost since I saw him.” Holtzmann remarks, glancing at the still smoking containment unit. 

“What?” Erin asks curiously. She knows that Holtz is obsessed with old mob movies and documentaries, so she wonders what quote she's thinking of. 

“You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” Holtz asks in a bad accent, making them all burst out into laughter. Erin shakes her head fondly as she laughs. Of course Holtz didn’t say the famous misquote, she said the actual line from Dirty Harry. 

“I think it’s safe to say he isn’t feeling lucky right now.” Patty chuckles, gesturing to the containment unit Holtz is holding, making them all laugh harder as they make their way home.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write in third person, so hopefully this is good! And let me know if I made any mistakes, I haven't edited! 
> 
> This is something I wrote for school. We were reading mystery books, I chose Ghostbusters by Nancy Holder which is based on the movie. It's good, but I like the movie better. It was supposed to be a minimum of 2 pages... This is 13 pages long. And yes, I turned this in word for word. Sex jokes and all! Luckily my teacher likes me and won't be reading this too carefully... 
> 
> Thank you all for reading! Stay awesome!


End file.
